Gary Becker, a University of Chicago professor who received the Nobel Prize in economic sciences and is credited with pioneering the approach to economics as a study of human behavior, died Saturday at age 83.

When people speak of a legacy, they usually mean something other than what the late economist Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose, left behind, namely the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice (edchoice.org).
The foundation has just released a...

With the usual fanfare and self-regard we have come to expect from the New York Times editorial board, the prestigious paper has changed its mind about pot. It now believes that the federal ban on the substance should be lifted and that the whole issue...

"The repeated failure of well-intentioned programs is not an accident. The failure is deeply rooted in the use of bad means to achieve good objectives."
— The late University of Chicago economist Milton Friedman
Before we mull what hiking...

Today, families are struggling to keep up with their bills and rising grocery costs. The average household takes in $3,400 less than it did seven years ago, and small businesses are still struggling their heads above water. In many cases, families...

"At CPAC, the Future Looks Libertarian," read a dispatch on Time magazine's website. "CPAC: Rand Paul's Big Moment," proclaimed the Week magazine. Meanwhile, the New York Times headlined its story about the annual conservative political action conference "GOP divisions fester at conservative retreat."
George Will, a man who actually knows a thing or two about conservatism, responded to the NYT's use of the word "fester" on ABC News' "This Week." "Festering: an infected wound, it's awful. I guarantee...

Re "The charter mistake," Opinion, Oct. 1
To say I am disappointed by Diane Ravitch's Op-Ed article is an understatement. Many of her assertions regarding charter schools are offensive to the parents and educators who have created some amazing charters. The fact remains: Los Angeles parents are choosing charter schools in high numbers, and they are producing academic results for students.
As independent, tuition-free public schools, charters disproportionately serve low-income students incredibly...

People in our country mostly seem to possess an innate faith in government. Probably that has evolved because, while our governments generally are unnecessarily expensive, wasteful and intrusive, they have not been overtly corrupt like so many others around the world. And most people feel that at least government means well.
But this growth of government is harmful for at least two reasons. First, government's power almost always comes at the expense of a loss of our individual freedoms and liberties,...

"At CPAC, the Future Looks Libertarian," read a dispatch on Time magazine's website. "CPAC: Rand Paul's Big Moment," proclaimed The Week magazine. Meanwhile, The New York Times headlined its story about the annual conservative political action conference "GOP divisions fester at conservative retreat."
George Will, a man who actually knows a thing or two about conservatism, responded to the NYT's use of the word "fester" on ABC News' "This Week." "Festering: an infected wound, it's awful. I guarantee...

Barbara Branden, who wrote a definitive biography of philosopher and novelist Ayn Rand after a close association that ended in a disastrous tangle of relationships, died Wednesday in a rehabilitation center near her home in West Hollywood. She was 84.
Her death from a lung infection was confirmed by longtime friend Wallis Grover.
Branden was the author of "The Passion of Ayn Rand," a 1986 biography that earned wide praise for its insights into the writer best known for novels "The Fountainhead" and...

In my Wednesday column, I described a vision of our future as imagined by economist Tyler Cowen: More rich people, more poor people and a smaller middle class; constant measurement of workers to help employers eliminate slackers; and “the creation of a new underclass,” including retirees clustered in shantytowns that resemble “the better dwellings you might find in a Rio de Janeiro favela.”
Is there any way to avoid that future, or at least make it less brutal?
Maybe....